Card connectors have been used in personal computers, lap-top computers or notebook computers. They typically comprise a shell assembly to accommodate a memory device, and a pin connector assembly adapted to be coupled to corresponding receptacles of the memory device. The shell assembly may include a card-ejection mechanism integral therewith. Examples of such card connectors are shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 6-332573 and 7-302645.
In more and more applications, the card connector is required to be equipped with a grounding terminal to ground the memory device itself to the ground circuit of the printed circuit board. The incorporation of the ground terminal not only increases the difficulty of assembling all of the separate components of the card assembly to the printed circuit board, but also has a tendency to increase the amount of space taken up by the card connector on the printed circuit board. However, there is also an increasing demand for reducing the size of the card connector to reduce the area occupied on the printed circuit board. Also, there is an increasing demand for facilitating the attachment of such a card connector to a printed circuit board to improve the efficiency with which computer parts can be assembled.